Mean Girls Movie Essay

For my assignment, I picked a movie “Mean Girls.” This movie starts out with a 16-year-old girl named Cady, who spent the last 12 years in Africa. She was socialized in a different society. When she first comes to high school in the US, she is confused. Adults don’t trust her and when she tries to talk to a student, that she accidently mistaken for the teacher, she was told she would get beat up. Theorist Thomas Pettigrew summarized much of the research on attribution theory to show that individuals commonly generate a significantly distorted view of the motives and capabilities of others based on their group association. All throughout the movie, students are judging one another based on who they hang out with, often their

She receives dirty looks from most of the students, but then she sees a table of all African American students. Cady approaches them and says “Jumbo!” and the group looks at her like she’s crazy. Cady assumed that since they were all African Americans they would be like the kids she grew up with in Africa. The first girl Cady meets and says is a friend is Janice Ian. Janice gives Cady a guide to surviving North Shore. She says the most important thing is where she sits in the lunch room. She goes on to explain how each table is set up. Janis assumes based on each group status what every member is like in that

Pyramid groups play a major role in forming our attitudes and life goals, as do our relationships with in-groups and out-groups. Social networks partly determine things such as who we know and the kinds of jobs we get. Networks are based on race, social class, and social factors. At the winter talent show the Plastics are lining up to perform their dance. Gretchen hops in the line next to Regina. Regina says to her, “Gretchen switch sides with Cady.” Gretchen argues why she can’t be on Regina’s right side but Regina tells her, “Right now you’re getting on my last nerve…switch.” This is Gretchen getting turned into the isolate in the group, and making way for Cady to become a dyad with